Friday, 18 November 2016

The Testament According to Albert DeSalvo

As Mick Jagger once asked: ‘Have you heard about the Boston
Strangler?’

Between 1962 and 1964 the city of Boston was terrorised by
an ultra-violent serial killer, originally dubbed The Mad Strangler, but more
popularly known (thanks to a series of press articles in 1963) as the Boston
Strangler. In all 13 single women between the ages of 19 and 85 were murdered:
most were sexually assaulted and strangled in their apartments by what was
assumed to be one man.

In late 1964, in addition to the Strangler murders, the
police were also trying to solve a series of rapes committed by a man who had
been dubbed the Green Man. After a stranger entered a young woman's home in
East Cambridge, tied her to a bed and sexually assaulted her, he left, saying
‘I'm sorry’. Her description led police to identify the assailant as Albert
Henry DeSalvo, former naval petty officer and long-time petty criminal. When
his photo was published, many women identified him as the man who had assaulted
them. DeSalvo was not originally connected with the murders, but he gave a
detailed confession to a cellmate George Nassar and, under hypnosis, to Doctor William
Joseph Bryan, Jr., after he was charged with rape. However, there was no
physical evidence to substantiate his confession and, because of this, he was
tried for earlier, unrelated crimes of robbery and sexual offences.

After DeSalvo was apprehended, news reporter and author Dick
Levitan (who worked for Boston’s talk radio station WEEI), was one of the very
few reporters allowed to interview him. In a very creepy twist, Levitan was
paid an undisclosed sum by Astor Records to record himself narrating DeSalvo’s
words (rumour has it that the company also paid DeSalvo $50), putting him
together with the local Beatles-influenced beat group The Bugs to produce Strangler
in the Night. The Bugs also provided the
b-side, Albert, Albert, about
DeSalvo’s crime spree. The sleeve for the single reads: “...These are my
thoughts, feelings and emotions.” Albert H. DeSalvo. These days it sells (well,
people advertise copies for sale) for anything from $20 to $200.

The true identity of the murderer of the 13 women has been
the cause of much debate over the years. Although DeSalvo copped for the crimes
he was never tried for them and consequently never found guilty. He was found
stabbed to death in the infirmary of Walpole State prison in 1973. 40 years
later Boston law enforcement officials announced that DNA evidence had linked
DeSalvo to 19-year-old Mary Sullivan, the last of the Boston Strangler’s victims.
DeSalvo's remains were exhumed, and further DNA tests proved that the seminal
fluid recovered at the scene of Mary Sullivan's 1964 murder was, in fact,
DeSalvo’s.

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